Social media networks are changing our way of having relationships
Communication technology is invading our life more than ever before. Mobile phones are never farther than a reach of our hands away. Emails, social networks, the internet are more present than ever before. More than 60% of all internet users also communicate via social networks and over 85 % of all teenagers have accounts on social networks.
Psychologists have started to define terms like Facebook addiction in their reports. Social media sites can be so addicting that people, especially youngsters, do not want to spend time with anything else, they live their relationships in a virtual world.
People often choose to talk to each other via mobile phone, Skype or communicate via Facebook because they may be afraid of getting to know each other, face to face. However, by doing this, they are missing out on their partner’s facial expressions or the gestures that the other makes. Emotions are reduced to Likes or Dislikes, smiley faces or other emoticons.
Psychology experts have also noticed that more and more marriages are breaking up. One of the reasons may be because Facebook makes it possible to communicate with old friends from high-school or former boy or girl friends that you have not had contact with in ages.
Couples are not communicating with each other as they should in real life. They sometimes even break up over Facebook and other social networks. Frequently, they do not argue about things in the usual way, they tend to carry out quarrels in public. As a result, others comment about something that should be solved privately. They don’t share with each other, they share with everyone,
It is strange to consider the fact that software developers and social network creators are , in real life, not really very social. Most of them are shy people who like to stick to their computers and do not create lasting friendships.
Facebook has defined privacy in a new way. Many things that should be private have become public. Social media has changed the world. It has helped uprisings in Arab countries and overthrown governments. Facebook, Twitter and others are omnipresent. They are the last things we worry about when we go to bed and the first thinks we check on when we get up.
In the future more social networks may pop up. We may be able to not only share photos with others but also our shopping lists or illnesses. More and more sites on the web are telling people to share. The more followers and friends we have the more excited we get.
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Words
- addiction = if you want to do something all the time
- argue = quarrel
- as a result =therefore
- break up = to leave each other and not live together any more
- consider = think, believe
- couple = a man and a woman who live together
- emoticon = a special sign you see in an email , short text message or on the internet; it is often shown in the form of a small picture
- emotion = feeling
- especially = above all
- excited = eager, thrilled
- face to face = in person
- facial expression = the feelings of a person that you can read by looking at their face
- follower = here: a person who likes your personal Facebook or Twitter page and wants to continue to see what you are doing
- former = past, ex-
- frequently = often
- gesture = sign, movement
- however = but
- illness = disease
- in ages = for a long time
- invade = enter
- marriage = two people who are husband and wife
- miss out on = to not have the chance to do something that might be good for you
- notice = observe
- omnipresent = always here
- overthrow = bring down
- pop up = emerge , show up
- psychologist = person who studies the mind and how it changes the way we behave
- public = not private; so that many people can see it
- quarrel = argument, problem
- reach of our hands = here: you can something by just taking it from nearby
- share = use together
- social = to meet people and become friends with others
- social network = internet platform on which people chat, share pictures and other information with each other
- solve = work out
- technology = the method of doing something
- tend to = probably will do something
- term = phrase
- uprising = revolt, rebellion
- via = by way of
- virtual = not real
- youngster = a young person